7W Retrospective Criticism 



C50uW-^asp and secure in its feet the newly hatched young, 

 surely the daily increasing size of that young would soon pret- 

 v^ni. the carrier parent from transporting it from place to pky^e. 

 aiStiU^ the gamekeeper positively said, that, until the chick«^j 

 ctolfly? the woodcocks, male and female, did actually dutch' 

 tjaixjhickens in their talons, and fly with them to the nearest 

 flings, and then reconvey them to the nest. - .'M uuh . ,ji 

 3<^Now, in fact, there was no need for the parent birdsr t^Hoads 

 themselves thus, because their young ones can run imme- 

 didlf ly tfaey are released from the shell. Moreover, th^s^txm 

 labcmi? cw'hich the parent birds took in returning to thfcaiieatit^ 

 quite iOtsrt of the order of ornithological things, inasmuch ai 

 the wciodcock's nest scarcely deserves the name of nest, being, 

 little better than that of a partridge or of a pheasant. Thfe 

 young o( the woodcock, as well as the young of these just 

 mentioned birds, come out of the shell with their eyes open, ase^ 

 of course they leave the identical spot of ground 3Athere they 

 were hatched, as soon as their down is dry, and toever return 

 to, it more. ' Add to this, that the woodcock is known) <JO/f^dij 

 by'night J wberefdre I am at a loss to account f0r>thatifmrli(c£ 

 thj^fkeeper's narrative in which the woodcock isisai^ tOQfl)&Jaffl 

 every morning with its young in its talons to the nesireslgfpEioP^ 

 and there continue till the chicks have fed. o j^mid 



jil Own I like old Ovid's story of parental aM filiabft^jOTk 

 Mtionsr through the air, best of the two. het Mima, ^^di 

 Bteadaltis,* prevent our travelling both by laud linda*«i©q J&hb 

 qtiii9Befc'>*^jAtbcpte coelumpatet--ibJintf^ illaaff l5hBi^fffl(iflffil5& 

 the sky is open to us, and that's our road, my boy 4-^ ;Qttisaji« 

 i^g*thi$^:;he set to work and made wings,// Ha vinggfastffied 

 bhe^pair on his own shoulders, and 3«dlh«fo'(Olifthos^l>flli|iflwr 

 Icarus, off they went through the liquidinyeid? Ifiayiflg^di^ 

 mltftterable amazement all who beheld th©inr>1 jlp.i f>nR ^dj^l 

 o'^iAhsmer to the Question at p. 608. on the Ni^tjar's trm^^m^t-^ 

 m^iitsEggs, as suggested hy Audubon^ s declaration of^e^CfmiUt^ 

 Qoatsucker's so doing:] While on the subject ofitpfjfef cpf^ 

 vepiiig ithfiir progeny, I take the opportunity of • informing 

 J. D., who, in page 603. of the last Magazine, asks " if o\\t 

 ferkl bWl^ removes its eggs to another place when they have 

 b^effiDfiidiscovered," that I am firmly persuaded that no bin^ 

 ever intentionally removes its own eggs from the place whetfe^ 

 thdy ^ere first deposited. The testimony which JiJSisiniro- 

 dwjes iiito the marginal note, at p. 60S., ought to be (received? 

 with BO common degree of caution; because the eye which/x:ouid 

 faac^ that it saw a rattlesnake swallow a large squirrel, 1 13^ 

 fbrombst^! might equally fancy that it could discern^ atiisisleei^ 

 err «ighteto>. yards distant, the Carolina gofttaoek^r s'tdswag- 



